Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

 

Article 1

(1) The countries to which this Convention applies constitute a Union for
the protection of industrial property.

(2) The protection of industrial property has as its object Patents ,
utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, trade names,
indications of source or appellations of origin, and the repression of
unfair competition.

(3) Industrial property shall be understood in the broadest sense and shall
apply not only to industry and commerce proper, but likewise to
agricultural and extractive industries and to all manufactured or natural
products, for example, wines, grain, tobacco leaf, fruit, cattle, minerals,
mineral waters, beer, flowers, and flour.

(4) Patents shall include the various kinds of industrial patents
recognized by the laws of the countries of the Union, such as patents of
importation, patents of improvement, patents and certificates of addition,
etc.

Article 2

(1) Nationals of any country of the Union shall, as regards the protection
of industrial property, enjoy in all the other countries of the Union the
advantages that their respective laws now grant, or may hereafter grant, to
nationals; all without prejudice to the rights specially provided for by
this Convention. Consequently, they shall have the same protection as the
latter, and the same legal remedy against any infringement of their rights,
provided that the conditions and formalities imposed upon nationals are
complied with.

(2) However, no requirement as to domicile or establishment in the country
where protection is claimed may be imposed upon nationals of countries of
the Union for the enjoyment of any industrial property rights.

(3) The provisions of the laws of each of the countries of the Union
relating to judicial and administrative procedure and to jurisdiction, and
to the designation of an address for service or the appointment of an
agent, which may be required by the laws on industrial property are
expressly reserved.

Article 3

Nationals of countries outside the Union who are domiciled or who have real
and effective industrial or commercial establishments in the territory of
one of the countries of the Union shall be treated in the same manner as
nationals of the countries of the Union.

Article 4

A. (1) Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for
the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a
trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title,
shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of
priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.

(2) Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the
domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or
multilateral Treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be
recognized as giving rise to the right of priority.

(3) By a regular national filing is meant any filing that is adequate to
establish the date on which the application was filed in the country
concerned, whatever may be the subsequent fate of the application.

B. Consequently, any subsequent filing in any of the other countries of the
Union before the expiration of the periods referred to above shall not be
invalidated by reason of any acts accomplished in the interval, in
particular, another filing, the publication or exploitation of the
invention, the putting on sale of copies of the design, or the use of the
mark, and such acts cannot give rise to any third-party right or any right
of personal possession. Rights acquired by third parties before the date of
the first application that serves as the basis for the right of priority
are reserved in accordance with the domestic legislation of each country of
the Union.

C. (1) The periods of priority referred to above shall be twelve months for
patents and utility models, and six months for industrial designs and
trademarks.

(2) These periods shall start from the date of filing of the first
application; the day of filing shall not be included in the period.

(3) If the last day of the period is an official holiday, or a day when the
Office is not open for the filing of applications in the country where
protection is claimed, the period shall be extended until the first
following working day.

(4) A subsequent application concerning the same subject as a previous
first application within the meaning of paragraph (2), above, filed in the
same country of the Union, shall be considered as the first application, of
which the filing date shall be the starting point of the period of
priority, if, at the time of filing the subsequent application, the said
previous application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or refused, without
having been laid open to public inspection and without leaving any rights
outstanding, and if it has not yet served as a basis for claiming a right
of priority. The previous application may not thereafter serve as a basis
for claiming a right of priority.

D. (1) Any person desiring to take advantage of the priority of a previous
filing shall be required to make a declaration indicating the date of such
filing and the country in which it was made. Each country shall determine
the latest date on which such declaration must be made.

(2) These particulars shall be mentioned in the publications issued by the
competent authority, and in particular in the patents and the
specifications relating thereto.

(3) The countries of the Union may require any person making a declaration
of priority to produce a copy of the application (description, drawings,
etc.) previously filed. The copy, certified as correct by the authority
which received such application, shall not require any authentication, and
may in any case be filed, without fee, at any time within three months of
the filing of the subsequent application. They may require it to be
accompanied by a certificate from the same authority showing the date of
filing, and by a translation.

(4) No other formalities may be required for the declaration of priority at
the time of filing the application. Each country of the Union shall
determine the consequences of failure to comply with the formalities
prescribed by this Article, but such consequences shall in no case go
beyond the loss of the right of priority.

(5) Subsequently, further proof may be required.

Any person who avails himself of the priority of a previous application
shall be required to specify the number of that application; this number
shall be published as provided for by paragraph (2), above.

E. (1) Where an industrial design is filed in a country by virtue of a
right of priority based on the filing of a utility model, the period of
priority shall be the same as that fixed for industrial designs.

(2) Furthermore, it is permissible to file a utility model in a country by
virtue of a right of priority based on the filing of a patent application,
and vice versa.

F. No country of the Union may refuse a priority or a patent application on
the ground that the applicant claims multiple priorities, even if they
originate in different countries, or on the ground that an application
claiming one or more priorities contains one or more elements that were not
included in the application or applications whose priority is claimed,
provided that, in both cases, there is unity of invention within the
meaning of the law of the country.

With respect to the elements not included in the application or
applications whose priority is claimed, the filing of the subsequent
application shall give rise to a right of priority under ordinary
conditions.

G. (1) If the examination reveals that an application for a patent contains
more than one invention, the applicant may divide the application into a
certain number of divisional applications and preserve as the date of each
the date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of
priority, if any.

(2) The applicant may also, on his own initiative, divide a patent
application and preserve as the date of each divisional application the
date of the initial application and the benefit of the right of priority,
if any. Each country of the Union shall have the right to determine the
conditions under which such division shall be authorized.

H. Priority may not be refused on the ground that certain elements of the
invention for which priority is claimed do not appear among the claims
formulated in the application in the country of origin, provided that the
application documents as a whole specifically disclose such elements.

I. (1) Applications for inventors’ certificates filed in a country in which
applicants have the right to apply at their own option either for a patent
or for an inventor’s certificate shall give rise to the right of priority
provided for by this Article, under the same conditions and with the same
effects as applications for patents.

(2) In a country in which applicants have the right to apply at their own
option either for a patent or for an inventor’s certificate, an applicant
for an inventor’s certificate shall, in accordance with the provisions of
this Article relating to patent applications, enjoy a right of priority
based on an application for a patent, a utility model, or an inventor’s
certificate.

 

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Conventions: Chronological Index 1951-1970, International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, International law topics, Locarno Agreement establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 2, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 3, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 4, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 5, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 6, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 7, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 8, Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 9, Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations 30, Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations 4, Patent Cooperation Treaty; with Regulations, Patents, Trade and Commercial Relations conventions, Treaties, country.